Sunday, 5 February 2017

The Political Compass says...

Reflections on the US Presidential Election Result

The US election result was less a victory for sexism and
racism than the defeat of Wall Street’s globalisation project — the one
percent who benefit from arms contracts and free trade deals. Clearly
large numbers of Americans, uncomfortable with the personality of Trump,
nevertheless quietly voted for him and confounded the pollsters. It was
a remarkable backlash against the political establishment, weary of
vacuous promises of hope, and impatient for actual change.

Trump, more than any other incoming President in living
memory, owes little to anyone. He was the outsider who won not because
of the Republican Party, but in spite of it. He will not come to grips
with the urgent issue of climate change. Neither will he do anything to
reverse the country’s moral and intellectual decline.

The Democratic Party has only itself to blame. Middle and
lower class anger towards the Washington establishment was all too
evident. Poll after poll during the primaries indicated that Sanders —
their own anti-establishment figure — had a far better chance of beating
Trump. Thanks to Wikileaks, we now know of the party’s manipulation of
its primaries. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, Hillary would
receive the nomination. The candidate of the military industrial complex
and international finance capital was entitled to it.

In Political Compass terms, the US has finished up with a
socially reactionary anti-establishment president. It might well have
had a socially
progressive
anti-establishment one.
The inescapable conclusion is that the Democratic Party hierarchy preferred Clinton to lose than Sanders to win.

In the wound-licking to come, might the party move closer to
its pre-Clinton, pre-globalisation Keynsian past? Might it perhaps
campaign for electoral reform and address undemocratic absurdities like
the electoral college? Might it even recognise that, in the interest of a
fully functioning democracy, the smaller parties must also be heard?
It’s doubtful that one in ten-thousand Americans has heard of Jill
Stein, not to mention her substantially fresh take on so many issues.

Trump is an old-fashioned isolationist and protectionist. As
alarming as the thought of his impulsive finger on the nuclear button
may be, he will diffuse the escalating tensions with Russia, and the
attempts to portray Putin as the new Saddam. he will also hopefully
fulfil his promise to tear up the planned Trans-Pacific Partnership
Agreement, which many nations are being dragged into. Far from being
merely about free trade, the TPPA gives corporations unprecedented and
dangerous engagement in many aspects of governance.

Most importantly, Trump’s every move will be analysed and
criticised not only by the Democrats, but also by large chunks of his
own party. This is a healthier situation than during the previous eight
years, when a Democratic president delivered a largely Republican
programme while his party remained shamefully silent. A socially
reactionary and highly unpredictable new president gratefully inherits
the Obama administration’s provisions for illegal detentions without
charges, domestic spying of citizens and extrajudicial assassinations —
precedents that would be damned as quasi-fascist if Trump had initiated
them.
We’re all in for an interesting — and bumpy — ride.

As to the UK? I was an activist back in the 80's and early 90's, when the Labour Party, ditched it's principles, and expelled its radicals to gain the power that came with appealing to the middle classes. I left in apathy and disgust. The emergence of Jeremy Corbyn re-energised me to some extent.

Well, Momentum seems to have lost a lot of its momentum. The grassroots movement that brought Corbyn to the fore is being thwarted at every turn by the mainstream Labour Party. My own local party remains suspended, and can only meet informally, under the banner of "Trades Union Public Meeting" or similar. There's a lot of anger towards Angela Eagle, and I think it's clear that given the opportunity, most constituency members would choose to replace her.